Transforming Leadership with the Power of Responsibility
In today’s fast-paced world of technology and leadership, we often come across moments that challenge us, put us to the test, and compel us to evolve. Today, I wish to share one such compelling journey of transformation featuring Mark, an exceptional engineering leader whom I’ve had the privilege to coach and work with.
Mark’s story revolves around his experience with the Responsibility Process. This powerful model, as conceptualized by Christopher Avery in “The Responsibility Process: Unlocking Your Natural Ability to Live and Lead with Power”, provides a guide to understanding and navigating the mental states we encounter when things go wrong.
From Setback to Transformation
“Sunish had run a brown bag session on Responsibility Thinking in December last year for a number of teams. We tried the Catch Sooner Game as part of the session, and I took it upon myself to integrate Responsibility thinking into my leadership style.
Unfortunately, we hit a major setback in a critical project this year. At first, I found myself in a state of Denial, wrestling with the reality of the setback.
Gradually, my mental state transitioned to Lay Blame as I attributed the issue to factors like an unrealistic timeline, not enough support from the security team and a challenging environment. This soon evolved into Justify, where I reasoned that the setback was an unavoidable consequence of the circumstances.
The Turning Point
Gradually, my mental state transitioned to Lay Blame as I attributed the issue to factors like an unrealistic timeline, not enough support from the security team and a challenging environment. This soon evolved into Justify, where I reasoned that the setback was an unavoidable consequence of the circumstances.
During one of our regular coaching sessions, I shared with Sunish that I was in a state of Shame, questioning my capabilities as an engineering manager. This was a turning point. With Sunish’s guidance, we applied Avery’s Three Keys to Responsibility — Intention, Awareness, and Confront — to navigate this challenging period.
I made the conscious choice to operate from the state of Responsibility, committing to own and address the problem. I increased my awareness of my own thought patterns and emotions and confronted the reality of the situation, recognizing my role in it.
The Power of Responsibility
This shift was a challenge, but it led to a creative problem-solving approach. With Sunish’s support, my team and I revisited our strategy, evaluated our capacity constraints, re-planned, broke the work into smaller tasks, used monte carlo probabilistic forecasting with the historical data we had and set new goals. We embraced shared responsibility, transforming a challenging situation into an opportunity for growth and learning.
Reflecting on this journey, I must say this experience has been transformative. The power of taking personal responsibility has not only helped me grow as a leader but also brought about a profound change in the team dynamics and project outcomes.”
Upon reading Mark’s reflections, I felt incredibly proud of his growth and transformation. It reaffirms the transformative power of the Responsibility thinking on leadership and teamwork. It’s truly inspiring to see the profound effect it can have on navigating challenges with increased resilience and resourcefulness. To all leaders out there, I encourage you to explore this process!
Check out responsibility.com, and the book “The Responsibility Process: Unlocking Your Natural Ability to Live and Lead with Power”. You can also find my exhaustive summary on the book here on Medium.
